AFSCME Council 93 members have achieved a long-sought victory in the state of Maine by securing funding for the so-called Heart Bill for Maine corrections officers. Governor Janet Mills has signed legislation that creates what is known as a “rebuttable presumption” that any heart disease or hypertension suffered by a state corrections officer is a line-of-duty injury and renders the officer eligible for either short-term or permanent disability pay.
“[This law] simply shifts the burden of proof from the individual employee to the state,” AFSCME Council 93 wrote in a statement. “In other words, the job is guilty of causing the heart disease unless proven otherwise. Given that corrections officers suffer heart disease at among the highest levels of any profession, this is an entirely appropriate benefit.”
According to the AFSCME International Research Department, only six other states in the country provide this benefit.
This is the third major piece of legislation that AFSCME Council 93 has passed during the current legislative session in Maine. One such bill was the Taxpayer Protection Act (known as the Pacheco Law in Massachusetts), which creates appropriate taxpayer safeguards before privatizing public services.
The second bill also impacts corrections officers by closing the loophole in the 1998 law that lowered the age of retirement for corrections officers from age 62 to age 55, except for those hired before 1998. The retirement age for corrections officers in Maine is now consistent regardless of date of hire, as it should be.
"Particularly critical to this latest victory was lead sponsor and champion of the "Heart Bill," Senate President Troy Jackson. Sen. Jackson fought not only for initial passage last year, but also to ensure its funding," AFSCME 93 stated. "Indeed, Sen. Jackson was also the lead sponsor of the corrections retirement bill passed earlier this session and was crucial to getting all three of these bills passed and funded. He has been a consistent champion and defender of public sector workers in Maine, and Council 93 is grateful for his leadership."